On the first day of ACE 2019, Rod McDavis, managing principal of AGB Search, led a discussion between John Katzman, CEO of Noodle Partners, ACE President Ted Mitchell, and Carol Quillen, president of Davidson College to explore how higher education leaders are leveraging technology to transform their institutions.

Stephanie Bell-Rose, senior managing director of the TIAA Institute, examines the ACE2019 session “Leveraging Philanthropy to Catalyze Change in Challenging Times” in which she participated as a speaker.

Four college students who are members of the Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America Scholar community spoke to a room of college and university leaders Sunday at ACE2019 about what low-income students want these leaders to know.

Panelists from Hope Center for College, Harvard University, and Bon Appetit Management Company asked audience members at the ACE2019 session “When Students Are Hungry: An Examination of Food Insecurity in Higher Education” to consider how the problem plays out on their campus.

ACE Vice President Lorelle Espinosa moderated a panel during ACE2019 on “Ensuring the Success of Men of Color: Lessons from Two Statewide Consortia,” featuring panelists Juan Sánchez Muñoz, president of the University of Houston, Downtown; Victor Sáenz, department chair and associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin; and William Franklin, vice president of student affairs for California State University, Dominguez Hills.

With civil discourse seemingly deteriorating on campuses and a public that is increasingly questioning the value of higher education, higher education leaders now more than ever are faced with the challenge of re-affirming the public mission of higher education. The ACE2019 session “Democracy, Civic Engagement, and Citizenship in Higher Education: A Global Perspective” looked at the problem.

In the ACE2019 session “The Three Cs: Creating, Calculating, and Communicating the Value of Higher Education,” panelists discussed how a commitment to instructional quality generates educational, financial, and reputational value. They asserted that we create value for our students every time they experience powerful teaching and learning and, upon graduation, send into the world champions of our value.

There hasn’t been a hotter topic in higher education circles over the past several years than whether the public no longer believes that a college education is worth the cost—or at least as a good a value as in years past—and if so, why? And what can be done to demonstrate to Americans that by any standard, the average person with a postsecondary degree is better off than someone without one? Three veteran journalists gathered at ACE2019 to assess these questions.

Representatives from Strada Education Network, the Career Leadership Collective, and the Association of College and University Educators joined forces to facilitate the session “From Impactful Classes to Rewarding Careers: The Unique Influence of Faculty on Students’ Career Readiness and Satisfaction” to a packed room of highly engaged attendees at ACE2019.

The TIAA Institute announced this week that Georgia State University President Mark Becker is the recipient of the 2019 Hesburgh Award for Leadership Excellence in Higher Education. The award recognizes a college or university president or chancellor who has demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities.

The Dr. John Hope Franklin Awards Reception was held Monday evening at ACE2019. Diverse: Issues in Higher Education announced the awardees last month: Harvard historian Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham and Michael T. Nettles, a nationally recognized as a top policy researcher on educational assessment, student performance and achievement and educational equity.

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